Suggestions for Invented Pronouns to Replace a Generic “He”

Generic Pronouns Pic

















Further Reading

1. Wikipedia:

2. A WordPress blog for this:

3. An editorial:

4. Wiktionary (rather comprehensive list):

5. Huffington Post (Swedish “hen”):


15 comments on “Suggestions for Invented Pronouns to Replace a Generic “He”

  1. I have no problem using “she or he” or “him- or herself” or any other construction that involves listing both the male and female pronouns. It isn’t that many keystrokes, honestly, and I find it very clear.

    Sex-neutral (if we’re talking about language “gender” has a linguistic meaning aside from sex) pronouns are, I believe, essentially dehumanizing. When speaking of a person unknown one can visualize a man or a woman, but one does not visualize a sexless person, because human beings are not ordinary sexless.

    The division of human beings into dimorphic sexes is an inherent part of who we are as a species. Men and women are equal, in the sense that all human beings have an intrinsic worth as part of the human race, but they are not the same. I believe that speaking as if they are robs us of something very precious.

    • Those are excellent points. 🙂 I tend to write “he or she,” and such, except when I feel less formal and slip in a “their.” I wasn’t thinking of a new pronoun that would help to establish equality; I was focused on allowing for the possibility of not knowing.

      Maybe we can put the gender in them explicitly to humanize them. For example, instead of “he or she,” let’s write “sex-he.” Surely, this would be a lot more popular. 🙂

  2. It seems like the same problems that prevented the US from switching over to the metric system. Interesting solutions up there that have been created, I almost want to use them at work to confuse people, lol.

    • Or just walk into a gas station in the US, drop a hundred on the counter, and demand 20 liters of gasoline and your change (do it with gender-neutral pronouns and you get bonus points). 🙂

  3. I am a female who believes in equality in pay for women…but not a feminist to the extreme that a pronoun choice would bother me…if it does bother someone…I would say they are rather simple minded.

  4. As a non-fiction writer at the mo. I have no problem either using he or she and if it’s one of my more informal pieces they and their. Occasionally I use “he” with the traditional explanation at the beginning of the text. The only time I am immutable about using “she” is when I refer to God…well, duh…it’s obv. innit?

  5. I was just contemplating this issue yesterday- crazy timing! My considerations were E (he/she) and es (his/hers) but it didn’t really seem to work. Probably easier to say than all those z’s, though… 🙂

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